The forum was down while Blink was happening so I missed out on hearing people's thoughts. I didn't see an existing topic for it, but if I overlooked it, feel free to move this.

 

 

Personally, I thought it was a huge success. I've never seen so many people in the basin, and what made it feel different was that people were actually walking around, not confined to a specific "event zone" like with other big gatherings like Oktoberfest. It caused people to actually navigate the city on foot, and the light installations and murals emphasized the buildings and architecture we have. In effect, the city itself was the event. I mean, the city was so alive that when I walked by the shabby Chinese restaurant on Race ("eat as if you were in China") that usually looks abandoned, and they actually had their doors open and lights on. Looked straight up 1965 inside.

 

 

The foot traffic up north of Liberty, mainly on Pleasant, was crazy. It was possible to walk around and miss the installations and just feel like you were in a Cincinnati with two or three times the current population.

 

 

The new murals are pretty great also. They compliment the existing Artworks murals nicely, since they feel a bit less safe and more surreal.

 

 

The streetcar was obviously packed, but moved slowly due to all the traffic. Insert usual complaints about the current administration's complete ineptitude at managing transit issues. 

Completely agree with everything you said, and as a volunteer ambassador I was really impressed with how many people came down who were either; 1. coming downtown for the first time in decades 2. Coming to OTR for the first time in decades because they usually only go to Oktoberfest and Taste and 3. Out of towners from the East Coast and Great Lakes region who came to see the displays and had never been to Cincinnati before.

 

To all of the above groups, I don't think Cincinnati could have put on a better showcase. The weather cooperated, the buildings looked awesome and the whole city felt alive. It was like the old Midpoint setup except 10x as many people were wandering the streets with me.

 

My only question is, what do they do next? Do you try and repeat it all over again next year? Do you take a couple years off a la Tallstacks, or do you expand to more areas of the city/basin to spread the crowds out more?

I think it would be really cool to do it in another neighborhood/neighborhoods. There are obviously issues (would it still be as popular? Where would people park? Would any other neighborhoods even want it? etc), but I think it would be awesome to do the same thing in Walnut Hills/East Walnut Hills. If I had to guess, I would say it will come back in a couple years and still be downtown/OTR.

 

 

Do you take a couple years off a la Tallstacks,

 

A couple or 11

I think it would be really cool to do it in another neighborhood/neighborhoods. There are obviously issues (would it still be as popular? Where would people park? Would any other neighborhoods even want it? etc), but I think it would be awesome to do the same thing in Walnut Hills/East Walnut Hills. If I had to guess, I would say it will come back in a couple years and still be downtown/OTR.

 

 

I think it would be cool if they kept Blink going downtown and in OTR, but have a few isolated installations scattered around select neighborhoods, too. That way, neighborhoods would get to benefit from some increased foot traffic and have some lasting public art to show from it, but they wouldn't have to carry the burden of providing parking and accommodating the crush of people that downtown is better equipped to handle.

I hope they make it an annual event.

How often do similar events (like the ones in Sydney and London) get staged? Are they yearly, biennial...? Just curious, as I feel like it could provide a comparable timeline.